Like so many of you, I love being creative, living in a space of beauty: food, textures, light family moments, gathering with friends and family at the table, collecting treasures. So much of what we focus on is joy and sometimes that’s hard to do because we can’t ignore that it seems like the world is on fire and at a fraught moment in the U.S. More on this shortly because are making some changes around here — exciting!
We did not know that we were moving when we set off at the end of July with a car packed so full there was no leg room in the passenger’s seat, our six week old baby nestled in her lay flat car seat and our toddler plugged into his tablet. We knew that we wanted to be in the Northeast, with family, and in a community where COVID has gone down substantially. We prepared for the trip over a nine day period, even packing all the meals, snacks, water and coffee that we could possibly need for a two day drive. We managed to avoid all stops save for refueling (#travel in the time of Corona…) and we stayed the night at my Dad’s empty house in D.C.
On the second day, our little lovely baby totally gave up on her car seat. Although we were making stops to feed and hang, it was the longest she and I had been physically apart and we were both miserable. We held hands for 14 hours and I casually joked to Will that this was so challenging that we weren’t planning to drive back. As we rolled down the windows to let in the cool summer air somewhere in New Jersey, I casually texted my mom — a Zillow guru — to send us a country property we could afford in the Northeast… just for fun. She pinged back a compelling little property in East Chatham, NY complete with a pool and pergola which was well within our grasp. And so the conversations began: should we… could we?
Nine weeks later, we made it about half way! We made it as far as Martha’s Vineyard where my parents have a home while we hunker down and organize our move. We have rented our own house through next spring. A rental gives us a few things: space to sell our house and to just focus on getting back to work, a winter to live through before re-committing to the Northeast (though I’m already SO excited for it, cozy nights by the fire…), and most importantly, this very strange and rare time with my family (my dad, step-mom, brother and sister) living in the same place which we would never have had otherwise.
We are SO excited. This Island has always felt like a second home to us and the time here has never felt long enough. I’m thrilled not to rush out of here, rather to languish in the beautiful landscapes, spend more time outdoors with the littles, experience four seasons, eat from the farms and actually know the farmers! Most importantly, we wish to use this strange pause as a chance to evaluate how we are living as a family and how we can do better so that we use 2020 as a time for positive change vs. a wasted year.
Cheers to a year of growth, awareness, strength and rebuilding from our family to yours.
